Walking down my road I noticed most of the same things I always do, an abundance of pine and palm
trees, an asphalt road, and of course the excruciating heat. I took my slightly plump, grandpa of dog,
Ringo along with me in hopes that he might shed a couple pounds in the process. After maybe 100 yards
Ringo decided to bolt off into a thick long overgrown trail. Luckily he decided to listen, but not before he
scared a family of deer out of the woods.
The deer “family” consisted of one large doe (mom), a smaller doe (daughter), and an even
smaller buck (son). The little male deer’s antlers were just starting to poke through, with small hints of
velvet fur. They all seemed to scatter in unison with the mother at the lead. I speculated that the Father
was somewhere watching from a distance but that may not have been the case.
This abrupt encounter started to make me think, why is this family of wild deer out in the open so
close to a busy road? Then I thought back to a brief but duly noted subject that we touched on in class
and during the swamp walk. With the encroaching development of 951/collier boulevard and
surrounding neighborhoods comes the loss of inhabitable space for wild life. These deer are now forced
to relocate themselves and try to find a more secluded area. Just like the wildlife within the FGCU
swamp they are in a way trapped within a small area of woods. This is a very unfortunate event but it is
just a necessary side effect to an increasing population.
I was not swift enough to get a picture of the actual deer but these pictures are close to what the
smaller deer looked like.